The co-founder of Denver’s wildly popular Comic Con[3] said he was pushed out of the nonprofit event with no explanation, and that he and others in the comic book community have launched a website to address grave concerns with the current leadership.

“I set out my whole life to bring my passion and love of comics and geekdom to others. I did not and will not give up on this organization that I envisioned and co-founded and so believe in. Nor have I or will I leave it,” he said while reading the letter, adding that his attempts to mediate with current leadership through legal channels have failed.

In an afternoon meeting at The Post, La Greca discussed how he and Comic Con co-founder Frank Romero are no longer associated with the event while highlighting the SaveDenverComicCon.com[6] website and a town-hall style meeting on Feb. 23 called to address problems they have with the Con’s leadership.

The Denver Comic Con, which drew 61,000 attendees last year, held its first event in 2012 as a programming arm of the nonprofit Comic Book Classroom[7] (CBC), which Romero and La Greca also co-founded.

“The last eight months have been fraught with difficulty and tumult, and I am left questioning the ethics and values of the people that Frank and I brought on to the CBC Board of Directors,” La Greca said. “We were somewhat inexperienced and should have better selected a Board who was perhaps dedicated to the Comic Book Classroom mission and making sure that the focus and funds raised from the DCC convention indeed went to teaching kids.”

La Greca’s other concerns include:

— Not seeing any educational events conducted by Comic Book Classroom since last year’s convention, which he called “very unhealthy.”

— “Allegedly up to $300,000 in revenues from the 2013 DCC alone, that remain unaccounted for, and some of which appear to be funneled towards high profile legal posturing.” The right-hand margin of the SaveDenverComicCon.com site[8] includes several graphics questioning how revenues from the 2013 convention have been used.

— All mentions of Romero — who resigned from the DCC board — and La Greca appear to have been removed from the Comic Book Classroom and DCC websites, despite being long noted as both organization’s sole co-founders. “It is one thing to feel as though founders are being forced out from an organization, it’s another to perhaps claim ownership and rewrite history.”

— The way various people associated with the DCC, who helped found and build it, have apparently been treated and dismissed. “These are not ‘growing pains.’ These are seemingly questionable steps by the Board of Directors, leaps away from the core values of CBC and DCC,” he said.

“As founders, and I can speak for Frank in saying this, it hurts us a great deal know there are no classes and that the focus has been so narrow (since the last con),” La Greca told The Post after reading the letter, citing the DCC’s apparent lack of year-round educational programming.

The Denver Comic Con has garnered national attention for its early success, large crowds and marquee guests like William Shatner. Its 2012 debut drew 27,700 fans, which more than doubled in 2013, making it the nation’s fifth biggest event of its kind. Organizers recently told The Post they are capping attendance at 75,000 this year to keep crowds under control.

La Greca speculated that he was pushed out due to perceived failings on his part in dealing with long lines on the first day of 2013’s convention, for example, or the scheduled availability of VIP badges — which he said was out of his control due to a manufacturing issue.

In a recent meeting with The Post, current convention and CBC leadership was mum about details of La Greca’s dismissal. But a Comic Book Classroom-penned letter La Greca shared with The Post said this: “One of the biggest lessons we have learned, both through our own experience and in speaking with other con organizers, is the importance of having the right people in the right roles,” wrote Illya Kowalchuk, interim executive director of Comic Book Classroom, in a letter dated Nov. 25, 2013.

La Greca said seeing the letter at a “drink and draw” comic-book artists’ meeting in mid-January was the first he had heard of his dismissal, and that all attempts on his part to contact the DCC or Comic Book Classroom board have failed.

The ultimate goal is to create a dialogue and save an event he’s spent his entire career building up to, La Greca said.

“The one thing I’ve tried to do is be sincere and transparent,” he said. “Can they come back to the table with Frank and myself and save it? Can we put any personal agendas to the side? It’s really sad for me and I feel really wounded in the sense that I gave up 20 years of my life to be a comic nerd.”

The 2014 Denver Comic Con[9] is slated for June 13-15 with celebrity guests such as Bruce Campbell, Michael Rooker, Walter Koenig and others. The public, town hall-style SaveDenverComicCon.com[6] meeting is at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23 at Dead Academy, 841 Santa Fe Dr.